The present inventions described herein are directed towards electronic trading. More particularly, the present inventions are directed towards interfaces, and aspects thereof, that are used to present electronic trading information on a display screen of a computer and allow a person to interact with the information.
An electronic trading system provides for electronically matching orders to buy and sell items to be traded. The items may include, for example, stocks, options, and commodities. Typically, an electronic exchange in the electronic trading system is used to match the orders. In addition, the electronic exchange provides market data to various client devices in the electronic trading system used by traders to place the orders. For example, the electronic exchange may provide market data such as prices for various items available for trading and trade confirmations indicating what trades have occurred at what quantities and/or prices. An example of an electronic exchange is the CME® Globex® electronic trading platform, which is offered by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group.
To trade on an electronic trading system, a person will often use a computer to receive and electronically process data from the electronic exchange. The computer will generally output information to the person via one or more display screens. The person may also interact with the computer and the information using an input device, like a mouse or keyboard or both, which is in communication with the computer system. For example, the person may place trade orders, modify trade orders, and delete trade orders at the electronic exchange using the computer system and the input device.
Given the amount of data that is often viewed and processed by the user and the importance of speed in electronic trading, where microseconds can matter, it is useful to provide an interface that may enhance the user's performance in this kind of environment.